Cresswells pass in the centre of the pitch went to the player who could do most damage De Bryne, he did a one two unchallenged and side footed it in to the corner. Like a training ground goal no closing down, like statues, embarrassing, heads dropped and it was all one way traffic after that. I was so fucked off I went for a piss, by the time I got back to my seat we were two down within just 4 minutes, game over.

I agree totally Tom. After the first goal it effectively became a training game. The memory of the cup game should still have been fresh in their minds, and a chance to make amends. Although we conceded a goal less than that game, I thought we looked worse last night.

Closing down, man marking, running off the ball, all basics that any professional footballer should be capable of. I'm amazed at some of the mugs on here just accepting of the excuse that Man City have better players.

Ottamendi is dogshit, if we'd gone out the blocks at them then they'd have been all over the place. Carroll was winning everything but no cunt was near him to benefit from it.

It was an utter shambles, most of the players looked like they'd just turned up and not a clue what their position was or their job. I've seen better organised Sunday league teams.

As soon as Cresswell cocked up with that ball to the invisible man in the middle, the game was over. Players sensed there was no coming back from that.Just hope Cresswell can get through whatever he is going through at the moment, but his lack of awareness and confidence is startling.

The one thing that worries me about Bilic is that I can't really see if he has a philosophy in mind about the way he wants to play. Managers like Klopp and Guardiola have their ideas and are very much set in their mind about how they want to play. In the past at West Ham Greenwood, Lyall and Redknapp all had their own way of playing and even Allardyce as painful on the eyes that it was sticks to his philosophy of playing the percentages.

Of course it doesn't always work and I'm not saying that it does but I'm just not really sure if Slaven knows how he wants his team to play. Three at the back earlier this season seemed like just an act of desperation to try something rather than a belief in the system. Last year of course was fantastic at times but looking back it seemed like that players just played off the cuff with confidence rather than any particular game plan.

After we went 2 down last night I sat back in my seat and watched city closely. We were clearly a yard off the pace all over the pitch and throughout the game.

Now they don't play at a furious pace. When they have the ball at the back and in defensive Mid-field positions they use pin point passing and the whole width of the pitch to probe an attacking position. They were never rushed and sauntered around with the ball. Once they create an opening or work a field advantage they up the pace dramatically and we were slow to react.

On occasions both full backs failed to anticipate their wide movements even though most of us could see what was happening. Acres of room and time and time again they were well inside our penalty area before we reacted.

The game they play will often play their wide men into attacking positions and that's what happened last night.

Both full backs were butchered in that formation last night. Stirling was almost untouchable and until we can work out a system that suits defending on wide pitches against a brilliant pass and move team like City we will struggle.

This is what Bilic said before the match." We have spoken about tactics and we can’t give them that space in-between the lines again. If we give them space, we give it to them in front of us and we have talked about that. If we do that tonight, we have a chance."

The annoying thing is that anyone with half a brain should realise that a "442" isn't going to work against Man City. The likes of Silva and Aguero, although he didn't start last night, are past masters at finding space between the lines and therefore they will get acres of space against a 442 or similar. Likewise Toure just sitting in front of their back four had all the time in the world, to just control it, pass and move. It seemed that we were literally "marking" areas that City weren't even using.

I really don't understand how anyone can just brush off yesterday's result as being something to expect against better opposition.

it would be one thing if that scoreline was the result of taking our chances going forward and actually threatening them, but we were torn to bits playing route one. Man City didn't get out of first gear, were out of sight by the half, and took their foot off the gas at 60 minutes, and still we couldn't mount an attack. it looked like a kids' match mercy rule where the coach tells you only to shoot after 10 passes and only to score from headers.

Sven Roeder 3:11 I thought it was a worse performance than the FA Cup even - in that game I felt we were "in it" until the 3rd went in, for this one it seemed all over once the 1st went in.

I've defended Bilic generally but he got this game wrong and was very slow to change things. Lanzini had no joy on the left despite quite a lot of ball in promising positions in the early part of the game - Antonio would have been much the better option there in a 4-5-1 (or 4-4-1-1, whatever). When it was clear that 4-4-2 wasn't working out, leaving the back 4 too exposed to Man City's quick forwards, switching to 3-5-2 would have made sense (or swtiching something to protect them better any rate) but we kept the same formation and approach throughout far as I could see through the fingers covering my eyes...

Has there been any consultation with fans where each of those FAULTS can be discussed to see what can be done to at least improve them?Or do we still have these fan forums where no hard questions are allowed

If we were in the top four the toilet bowl would still have scaffolding, breeze blocks, gaps between the tiers, trampolines, a technical area the size of a runway at Heathrow, 'fans' who are there to watch the other team and a so-called party fucking deck.

Are we thinking that we will never settle in to this stadium then? or is it just that people don't want us to because they dislike it themselves? How much more would you like the new stadium if we were in the top four right now?

There are a multitude of excuses to be used as to why we are having a poor season and this appears to be the top one for a lot of fans. But what happens if next year, after settling in and buying some better players in the summer, we become the team our fans want us to be? will it be accepted as our new home then?